Melinda French Gates on The Next Day and the Beauty in What Comes Next

Description:

If we’re lucky, most of us will live an abundant life that’s filled with a number of significant transitions. How we embrace those inevitable life changes and honor that growth can make a big difference in how we are prepared to meet future challenges.

Today, Jen and Amy have the pleasure of sitting down with Melinda French Gates to discuss how, at 60, she is stepping into this next beautiful season of life. By giving a rare glimpse into her interior life, and sharing previously untold stories included in her new memoir, The Next Day: Transitions, Change and Moving Forward, Melinda shares the heart-connecting lessons that we all can apply to the universal moments in our lives – including becoming a parent, the loss of a close friend, the loss of a marriage, knowing the right time to make a career move.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The art of letting go and beginning again and making the most of the time between an ending and a new beginning
• How growing up in a middle-class Catholic family influenced Melinda’s values and worldview
• What it looks like to loosen the bonds of perfectionism and embrace uncertainty in times of change
• The new projects, ideas and hopes Melinda has for the future

Thought-provoking Quotes:

• “Surround yourself with great people who are all charging toward the same mission.” – Melinda French Gates
• “There was something about the rollback of women's rights in the United States that I just never thought we would see in our lifetime. To see that my granddaughters will have fewer rights than I have, just shouldn't be. I felt called to try and do something about that.” – Melinda French Gates
• “When you lift women up, what I know from all over the world is, they lift families up and they lift societies up. And so they should be able to step into their full power, but there are still barriers in society that hold us back.” – Melinda French Gates
• “Women don’t tell each other enough that we’re proud of them so it’s good to hear it, no matter who you are.” – Amy Hardin

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Melinda Gates: The Power of Lifting Up Women - https://jenhatmaker.com/podcasts/series-18/melinda-gates-the-power-of-lifting-up-women/
• Sara Bareilles - She Used To Be Mine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53GIADHxVzM
• Adele - Easy On Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3ASj1L6_sY
• The Gates Foundation “Make Me Care About… with Jen Hatmaker” podcast - https://www.gatesfoundation.org/podcast/make-me-care-about
• The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates - https://amzn.to/3FBDoTV
• The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda French Gates - https://amzn.to/3FIW98c
• Gates Foundation - https://www.gatesfoundation.org/
• Pivotal Ventures - https://www.pivotalventures.org/

Guest’s Links:

Website - https://www.pivotalventures.org/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/melindafrenchgates

Twitter - https://x.com/melindagates